‘Do not punch Dave Bautista in the face’: Will Poulter opens up about filming ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ fight scenes

It’s always interesting to hear about the rules that directors and producers have on film sets. In some, they’re stipulated in actor’s contracts. But for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Will Poulter shared a self-made rule for his fight scene in this Marvel blockbuster.

During Poulter’s interview on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused Podcast, The actor revealed that he needed a lot of self-control when it came to filming his fight scenes against the Guardians, most notably against Drax, played by Dave Bautista. He said that he made the effort to “not punch Dave Bautista in the face” because people are going to find out that he did it once gold makeup was found on his face.

“All that was running through my mind during the entirety of our fight was ‘do not punch Dave Bautista in the face.’ And if you do punch Dave Bautista in the face, everyone’s gonna know because there’s going to be gold makeup on his purple face. That is what’s gonna happen and there’s gonna be no… do you know what I mean?”

Poulter stated that he has so much respect for Bautista, especially when doing the fight choreography, and that he grew up watching the actor. So being given the opportunity to fight him in Vol. 3 felt really “bizarre” to him, but at the same time, somewhat like a dream come true for someone who admired the actor.

“Dave is just pure class in every sense. He’s so talented and he’s so lovely. He’s also so scarily proficient at the fight choreography thing and so effortless with it. That kind of the ideal person to do that sort of thing with..

“… I grew up watching Dave. I haven’t told Dave this and I would never want to kind of embarrass him. But you know, I grew up kind of watching Dave and also really admiring what he did in Guardians as an actor. So to suddenly be like toe to toe with him and doing that scene was very bizarre but really really fun.”

Poulter plays Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and is one of the antagonists in the film’s final installment. He goes toe-to-toe against the Guardians at the start of the film and becomes somewhat of an obstacle as events unfold. If you want to see the fight scene that Poulter mentioned in the interview, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now showing in theaters.